Preventing forest wildfires during northern Thailand’s ‘burning season

Indigenous communities are playing a crucial frontline role in protecting forests from wildfire in northern Thailand.

Between February and April each year – both the dry season and the ‘burning season’ – the risk of wildfires igniting is extremely high, largely due to the adoption of monoculture agriculture by many lowland farmers, which requires them to burn crop residue, such as corn stalks, on large swathes of land as they prepare the ground for the coming season. Unlike the tightly controlled burning practised by some of the upland Karen communities as part of their sophisticated and diverse rotational farming systems, these lowland farmers do not have the deep knowledge and skills needed to control fire.

In recent years, government agencies, civil groups, private companies and local communities have united to tackle the problem. Through this collaboration, new approaches to preventing and managing wildfires have emerged, recognising the key role that indigenous communities play.

This year, FPP funding supported 52 indigenous communities, working with our partner IMPECT, to build firebreaks and monitor wildfires across the provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Mae Hong Son.

“It’s quite impressive”, says FPP project manager Agata Pilarz. “Their systems include patrolling teams, early-warning systems, and an excellent understanding of fire behaviour. The whole community is mobilised, with ‘firefighters’ on motorbikes reaching the most remote sites where there are neither roads nor tracks. And they do all this on a voluntary basis.”